Beowulf Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Beowulf - Essay Example The epic portrays that Beowulf's tact in his successive parleys with the Danes he met as he made his way to Heorot seemed to be evidence for his own awareness of this potential tension. The Danes must determine whether the Geat is nothing but a wandering showoff and braggart, coming fordolgilpe and forwlenco, out of foolish boastfulness and pride. If he is, it would be truly humiliating for them to betray their own desperate need for help by treating such a heroic charlatan with respect. Thus, even if Beowulf's very well-chosen words had placated some of the Danes, it is likely that not all were ready to embrace the visitor. Unferth's sharp challenge of Beowulf may thus dramatically fill a psychological need for the Danes as a whole. At the least, taking Unferth as the spokesman for many Danes obviates any necessity to explain why they show no disapproval of his challenge to Beowulf. In this scene his only speech, the challenge to Beowulf, is no brag. There Unferth makes the charge t hat it is Beowulf who is an empty braggart with a low heroic credit rating, whereas Breca, Beowulf's competitor in the swimming-race, is not (Berger and Leicester 39). The character of Beowulf is shaped by the heroic world he is a part. ... Necessary is precisely what Beowulf's death is (Guerber 267). The epic says: They felled the enemy -- courage drove out his life -- and they both then had succeeded in destroying him, those noble kinsmen. That is how a fighting-man should be, a retainer in time of need! (2706-09a) Beowulf's hero is expressed in the quality of such past actions, because that is after all probably the point of bringing them in. Following Guerber (1966) if readers make this latter judgment, they must blame him for scorning any help and for risking all on the chance of one more survival in a lucky lifetime series. If readers are to take this pattern of behavior in a Christian context at all, it is more likely that the poem is suggesting that he was allowed, by some higher power, even by the God himself, to survive those earlier tight places in order to win his last victory. The character of Beowulf and his heroic nature is portrays through contrasts and oppositions. The contrast is between passive behavior and what readers see in old Beowulf's behavior when the dragon attacks. Beowulf first has a moment of guilt that he might have done something wrong, broken some law, after which he is completely ready to meet a personal attack with all the strength at his command. Hrothgar merely grumbles that God could easily have stopped Grendel long before. The hero is here suggesting teamwork or shared labor between himself and deity. By maiming Grendel Beowulf has put a mark on him, just as God once marked the ancestor Cain. Both dark figures must now face the bright Lord. But the key to this close relationship is that it is active collaboration (Guerber 267). On the sword-guards of